Why Valentin Barco Is Brighton's Next £100m Player |
Brighton's transfer - Argentine fullback Valentin Barco arrive from Boca Juniors. After beating some European giants to his signature though, will he be the latest in a long line of players to arrive at the club and quickly prove they can play at the very highest level? FourFourTwo's Adam Clery thinks so.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 *ding*
00:00 *ding*
00:01 *ding*
00:01 Alright, so, Valentine Barcode. Who is he and what does he do?
00:05 Well, he's a 19-year-old Argentine left-back who looks a little bit to me like a younger version of the guy who played Rorschach in Watchmen,
00:12 and he has been described as one of Argentina's brightest talents.
00:16 He broke into the bocker side in their left-back position, but has now been moved further up the pitch and plays on the left-hand side of a diamond.
00:24 Now, he will still play in this left-back position here when the situation demands it,
00:27 but the reason they've got him here is so he can move into the middle or he can push up down the left-hand side,
00:32 because he's just that good.
00:34 With all due respect to full-backs, and I say that because my father was one,
00:38 it would be a waste of his ability to exclusively play him here.
00:42 And what I mean by that is, good God almighty, look at these attacking statistics for the Argentine league.
00:47 Now, the way these graphs from FB Ref work is they are comparative to all the other players in that division,
00:52 so entirely up to you how impressive you find comparative stats from the Argentine first division,
00:57 but for me, personally, I would say quite impressive, but that's a personal call.
01:02 Comparative to all the other full-backs in the division, his output from an attacking and a creative sense is phenomenal.
01:09 And genuinely, when you look at all his stats, it's like a firework display at an orgy.
01:13 You've just got no idea where to look.
01:15 I think for me, though, the thing that jumps out is his take on numbers,
01:18 like his ability on the ball to just glide past players, the confidence to take other defenders on,
01:25 even at 19, is...
01:27 Whoa.
01:28 The kid is in the top 1% for the total number of take-ons he does in a game, which is amazing.
01:33 He's in the top 1% for the number of those that are successful, so he's really good at it, as well as being really confident.
01:40 He's in the top 1% for the number of chances created by doing a take-on,
01:45 so, like, getting past somebody and putting a teammate in.
01:48 He's in the top 3% for the number of goals created that way.
01:52 So you would argue someone on his team has missed a sitter somewhere,
01:56 and if they hadn't, he'd be in the top 1% for that, as well.
01:59 That's really good!
02:00 Now, if you haven't had the particular pleasure of randomly finding a Copa Libertadores game on the BBC red button
02:06 when you've been trying to catch up on the Traitors, let me tell you, the boy can play.
02:11 Like, yes, those take-on numbers look impressive because they're comparative to defenders,
02:14 and a lot of players in the division won't be even attempting to do what he's doing,
02:18 but when you actually watch him in real time, he has the ability and the determination and the technique
02:24 and the confidence of a genuine wide attacker.
02:27 Like, just to show you I'm doing my job properly here, here are all his take-on numbers,
02:30 and here are some of the best take-on honours in the Argentine division.
02:34 Now, they're all attacking wide players, so they do it more than he does,
02:38 so their numbers for totals are slightly higher.
02:40 Remember, he's playing sort of slightly deeper in this diamond or sometimes at left-back,
02:44 but their conversion rate, the amount of times they successfully do it, are pretty much the same.
02:49 If we also look at his numbers in regards to how he passes the ball,
02:52 you'll see that not only is he still a really good chance creator in that regard,
02:55 but he's incredibly forward-thinking.
02:58 He looks to play forward and to play dangerous passes whenever possible.
03:02 Progressive passes, and if you've been watching this channel for a while,
03:05 I'm sorry, this must be the hundredth time you've heard me bang on about them.
03:07 They're not backwards, they're not sideways, they're a pass that helps you progress the team up the pitch.
03:13 He loves those passes into the final third, passes into the box.
03:17 If the kid can see a way to make something happen to advance the attack, he always does it.
03:22 This is the best one, though. He's in the top 1% for defenders playing through balls,
03:26 and I'll tell you why I really like that stat, okay? Because I love through balls.
03:31 Because if you think about it, right, the definition of a through ball is any pass
03:34 that goes between two defenders into the open space behind them, right?
03:38 And in order to do that, you have to, like, travel to the future.
03:43 Yeah, admittedly, that does sound a bit weird, but your teammates cannot physically stand
03:47 in the open space behind defenders. They would be offside.
03:49 They can't even stand near the open space behind defenders because they get well-marked.
03:53 So if you play a through ball, you are passing the ball into a future which does not yet exist.
03:59 Nobody is there, nobody is likely to get there, but you still put it there
04:03 because you know what's going to happen. You only tend to see them from a particular kind of player.
04:08 Someone who, A, has incredible reading of the game because they're effectively putting the ball
04:12 into a situation which does not exist yet, but also, B, or 2, whichever I said first,
04:18 someone with just genuine confidence and self-belief in their own ability
04:22 because you are giving the ball away. Unless exactly what you think happens, happens,
04:28 you have just passed that back to the goalkeeper normally.
04:31 And at just 19 years of old, which is not an expression, but you do know what I mean,
04:35 Valentin Barko plays more through balls than any other defender in the entire Argentine First Division.
04:42 Is that a small thing? Well, yes, but I'll tell you what it also is, right?
04:47 Incredibly, incredibly brightened.
04:50 This is just a player who believes absolutely in his ability to go and be one of the best footballers
04:56 in the entire world, and that's evidenced in the way he takes his opponents on
05:00 and how easily he goes past them. It's evidenced in the kind of passes he likes to make in a game of football.
05:06 It's evidenced in the fact they brought him in at left back, but now play him as close to the center of the pitch as possible
05:11 because he's got the ability to influence a game.
05:14 He's absolutely fantastic on set pieces as well. He's become Bocca's go-to player this season
05:19 for all the dead ball situations. And even there, you can see his level of confidence.
05:23 The kid tried to score from a corner this season and very nearly did it.
05:27 He got to take Bocca's deciding penalty in a cup shootout, and he just nonchalantly steps up and side-footed in.
05:36 Not an ounce of just pressure or worry or doubt or anything. He believed he was going to score that.
05:42 And you can even sort of see that in his heat map from this season because, like, on the one hand,
05:46 yeah, you can see that he's playing, like, on the left-hand side slightly further up,
05:50 but is also sort of involved in some defensive duties.
05:53 But just look at the splatterings all over the pitch of where he just randomly pops up.
05:58 He's on the right-hand side all the time. He drifts into the middle. He gets into the box.
06:03 Players don't do that at 19. They tend to do what they're told because there are senior players in that side
06:09 and there's a way of doing things, and you don't want to put anyone's nose out of joint,
06:12 and you just want to show that you can be a part of that side. He doesn't care. He is that side.
06:18 But now, the other side of this, because with extreme confidence at 19 years of age, naturally, comes some downside.
06:26 Now, yes, absolutely, the main reason Bokke have started to play him slightly further up the pitch
06:31 is so he can influence the game better because he's got the ability to do so,
06:34 but it is also because he would occasionally get caught out at left-back because of his attacking instincts.
06:41 Teams would quite regularly target the space in behind him, and while he does work back very hard off the ball
06:46 when those situations develop, at 19, his physicality just isn't there. He's not naturally the quickest,
06:53 and his body's still got a lot of developing to do, so it wasn't very easy for him to recover those situations.
06:58 And then, of course, there was the standing on the ball incident in that semi-final.
07:03 A lot of people, they really liked that. They were like, "Ha ha! What a little trickster! Look at him go!"
07:08 But some other people, a lot of other people, were like, "What are you doing, you div?"
07:14 Now, the big question, though, if you're a Brighton fan, will he play, and when will he play?
07:19 Well, genuinely, I would say right now it's 50/50.
07:23 Like, Brighton do like to bring these players in and send them immediately back out on loan,
07:26 sometimes to their home division to help them develop a little bit better,
07:30 and then bring them in when they're comfortable that they've done that.
07:33 But also, sometimes they don't, and literally this time last year, they brought a youngster in from the Argentine First Division,
07:39 and he was playing almost immediately.
07:41 Now, of course, Brighton have had an injury crisis, but that is abating,
07:45 which is a word I think is literally only used to describe injury crisis.
07:48 It is abating, so there's not the urgent need to desperately bring somebody in to fill a space in the squad,
07:54 but also, he is really good.
07:57 Now, if you want my opinion, and I mean, you've made it this far in the video, why the hell not?
08:02 I don't think he will, because those aforementioned physical disadvantages would be a really big problem in the Premier League, I think.
08:10 He'll be back out on loan, but also, they've got a European campaign to contend to.
08:16 There's no reason you couldn't just get him in and use him sparingly.
08:20 I think he might play.
08:22 Did I genuinely just say I don't think he's going to play, and then I think he's going to play in the same bit?
08:26 Great work, me. I'm really good at this.
08:29 Right, now, just, I know when people think it's the end of the video, they click off and they go do something else.
08:33 Just sit down for a second. I've got something really exciting to tell you.
08:36 We were on location yesterday, can't tell you where yet, doing our biggest ever interview,
08:41 although I can't tell you who with yet, and we are just genuinely so excited to put this video out eventually.
08:48 So, if you've ever considered subscribing to us here on 442, we would genuinely really, really appreciate that,
08:54 because we are on, currently on trajectory, to have our best ever month for subscribers,
08:59 and it would blow my tiny pea brain if we could do that in January.
09:05 So, legitimately, it does massively help out the channel, and if you've been giving it any thought,
09:09 and looking for a sign to do it, here it is.
09:12 Actually, shout out to friend of the channel, Carl Langdale, by the way,
09:15 who helped us with some golden nuggets of info for the research for this video,
09:19 because the guy just watches loads and loads of Bocca.
09:21 If you ever see him, buy him a mojito.
09:24 That's it, though. That's all I've got. New magazine's out. It's really, really good.
09:27 You should go buy it. That's Alex Ferguson on the cover.
09:29 Get me on Twitter @adamcleary, C-L-E-R-Y, 442 socials in the corner.
09:32 And this, they've just done it again, Brighton.
09:35 They've just, they are playing football manager.
09:37 They're not playing real football. They're just going Wonder Kid shopping,
09:41 and in a fair and just world, they would win the league every season, I think.
09:46 That's the end of the video. Goodbye.